Saturday, February 10, 2018 (Court Day #124)
I arrived Brommer Park a few minutes after 9. The weather was stunning.
Last night, Beth Black texted and invited a number of players for a private gathering Saturday morning. We ended up with about 16 people there. Though I believe the very advanced players may not have been connected to Beth’s callout.
Games
Eric and I played David and Beth Black three times. We lost the first game. But then we played a second game and won that one. Later, we played a third game and won that one as well. 2 out of 3 against the Blacks. Nothing to shake a stick at!
We played the two tennis instructors, Chris and his wife Jen, twice and won both. Though Chris didn’t ever serve one of his really fast serves that I have trouble with. He was probably being nice. On the other hand, it’s rare that I get the opportunity to go up against those serves. I’d rather lose and have the challenge than win against easier serves.
Drilling
Mid-morning, after some players had left due to other obligations, we didn’t have enough players to fill both (non-advanced) courts and Eric and I were the odd players out, so we did Terry’s drill, then some baseline ground strokes that turned into a singles game. We were pretty even and that game got abandoned when the others’ game concluded.
In a game with Chris as my partner against Eric and Jen, I almost had a disaster. The point was called off—probably a random ball rolling onto the court—and me, awkwardly going for the ball to keep it from getting away as the point stopped, I almost rolled my good left ankle! Concerned, Chris said, “I saw that!” and for me to be careful. That could have been very bad! One bum ankle is plenty.
Play wrapped up about noon, with Eric and I taking that second game against Chris and his wife, the last game of the day for our group.
The end of play for us. Chris with his things slung over his shoulder. The more advanced players were still going.
Serving Spoof Video
I took a few minutes and asked Eric to video a serve for me. On the Pickleball Forum on Facebook, there has been a rash of people lately posting slow-motion videos asking if their serve is legal. One was so supremely obviously legal that I recorded and posted this spoof of an overhead serve asking if it’s legal:
“There has been a ton of “check my serve” posts/videos here. Someone said my serve is illegal. My palm is up. I get a lot of aces and I’d hate to give it up. What do you think?”
Link to the Facebook spoof video.
Some of the responses are hysterical, especially the ones that took my question seriously!
How Did It Go Today?
Eric and I did well, even though we weren’t at the top of our game. I had errant shots and Eric would quickly admit he was lobbed too much and too many sailed out. Both of us hit balls that otherwise would have landed out and also dropped balls into the net—especially me. There was a lot to clean up. Still, we won games. It’s good to be able to win some even when not playing your best.
Ankle
Later in the evening, I was walking down steps while talking and stepped on my hurt ankle wrong. Ouch! It was worse instant pain than anything I’ve done durning pickleball to it since I injured it about a month ago. Fortunately, the pain subsided in a few minutes and returned to normal. It still hurts when doing certain movements. I don’t know how long this is going to take to heal fully, but at this rate, it’s going to be months.
Number of days on a court: 124
Number of total hours: 354.5
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